1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for controlling progress of a video game by displaying multiple characters including a player character on an image display screen of an image display apparatus, and by controlling an action of the characters displayed on the image display screen in response to operation(s) by a player.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, various kinds of so-called role playing games (RPG; that is, a game in which a player plays a role of a character in a world of the game, and accomplishes a predetermined object while enjoying a process that the character grows through various experiences) have been provided.
In a RPG, generally, a player character acting in response to operations by the player wins a battle against an enemy character thwarting accomplishment of a predetermined object in the RPG, by which various benefits such as an experiential value are supplied to the player character. In a RPG, heretofore, various kinds of ingenuity are worked out in order to improve realism of an action scene. For example, an “active time battle” (that is, generally called “ATB”) system that is developed from a turn system in which one of a player character side and an enemy character side attack the other alternately is known (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-105959). In the ATB system, a player is allowed to input a battle command to instruct a battle action for a character on condition that standby time defined for each character elapses from the time when a battle action against the character is terminated. The elapse of the standby time is then informed of the player using a time gauge displayed on the screen. Further, heretofore, it has been proposed to change a time configuration (time setting) of standby time in the ATB system (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-296267).
Moreover, heretofore, a battle against an enemy character has been an additional event to thwart the accomplishment of the predetermined object in the RPG. For this reason, a battle mode in which the player character battles the enemy character on a battle field has been provided in addition to a movement mode in which the player character is moved on a movement field, and the movement field and the battle field have been distinguished (separated) completely.
More specifically, for example, when predetermined battle mode shifting conditions are met while the player character is moved on the movement field, the movement field is shifted to the battle field. Namely, the scene that is displayed on the image screen (that is, scene) is shifted from the movement field to the battle field, and the player character and the enemy character(s) are displayed on the battle field in a state that they stand face to face. After the scene is shifted to the battle field, the scene is not returned to the movement field until the battle is terminated, and therefore, the player character cannot be moved on the movement field.
In this case, multiple friend characters (that is, playable characters including the player character that is a main character) and multiple enemy characters may be displayed on the battle field. When many characters are displayed on the battle field, it is difficult for the player to accurately grasp a state of each of the many characters displayed on the battle field. For this reason, the player may mistakenly operate, and the player character will not execute an action intended by the player (for example, an attack, a recovery, a supplemental defense, a supplemental attack or the like), by which a problem that this lowers interest of the player may occur (that is, such mistaken operations may cause the player to lose interest in the game).
In the ATB system as described above, a player just selects a specific command from a group of battle commands prepared in advance, by which a battle action content of a player character is merely determined. In addition, in the ATB system, once the player selects and specifies the specific command, the specific command is merely executed in accordance with a predetermined rule. Thus, the player cannot specify or determine the timing of executing the selected specific command. Therefore, there is a problem that the battle action in a battle scene is lacking variety.
Further, in the conventional techniques described above, the battle field and the movement field are provided separately. For this reason, in the case where the battle mode shifting conditions are met while the player character is moved on the movement field, the scene is shifted from the movement field to the battle field in each case. Therefore, there is a problem that realism (realistic sensation) may be lost in the video game.
Moreover, in the case where the battle mode shifting conditions are met while the player character is moved on the movement field, the player has to wait until the period of time required to switch the fields (for example, the period of time obtained by adding the period of time for switching the scenes and the period of time until an initial event is executed in the battle mode) elapse, and therefore, there is a problem that the video game cannot proceed smoothly.